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Your GP will prescribe antibiotic tablets (or liquid for young children) to take for five or 10 days.

Scarlet fever usually clears up within a week, although the skin may peel for a few weeks after the other symptoms have passed.

The infection is contagious from before the symptoms appear, until:

24 hours after starting antibiotic treatment

up to two or three weeks later if you don't take antibiotics

Further problems due to scarlet fever are rare, but there's a small risk of the infection spreading to other parts of the body and causing problems such as an ear infection or lung infection (pneumonia).